EU: Programming languages can't be copyrighted

Europe's top court has ruled that the functionality of a computer program and the programming language it is written in cannot be protected by copyright.

The European Court of Justice made the decision in relation to a case that SAS Institute, a maker of statistical programs, brought against World Programming Ltd. (WPL), which develops and sells an interpreter for the SAS language.

Although WPL used and studied SAS's programs to understand their functionality, the court said, there was "nothing to suggest that WPL had access to or copied [SAS] source code." The court ruled that "the purchaser of a license for a program is entitled, as a rule, to observe, study or test its functioning so as to determine the ideas and principles which underlie that program."

If a function of a computer program could be specifically protected, that would amount to making it possible to monopolize ideas -- to the detriment of technological progress, the court said. This echoed the opinion given in November by Yves Bot, the court's advocate general.

The ruling effectively leaves the door open for companies to reverse-engineer the software of others -- in many cases without fear of infringing on copyrights.

Programming languages can't have copyright protection, EU court rules

Europe's top court ruled Wednesday that the functionality of a computer program and the programming language it is written in cannot be protected by copyright.

The European Court of Justice made the decision in relation to a case brought by SAS Institute against World Programming Limited (WPL).

SAS makes data processing and statistical analysis programs. The core component of the SAS system allows users to write and run application programs written in SAS programming language. Through reference to the Learning Edition of the SAS System, which WPL acquired under a lawful license, WPL created a product that emulates much of the functionality of the SAS components, so that customers' application programs can run in the same way on WPL as on the SAS components.

The court found that although WPL used and studied SAS programs in order to understand their functioning, there was "nothing to suggest that WPL had access to or copied the source code of the SAS components." It ruled that "The purchaser of a license for a program is entitled, as a rule, to observe, study or test its functioning so as to determine the ideas and principles which underlie that program."

If it were accepted that a functionality of a computer program can be protected as such, that would amount to making it possible to monopolize ideas, to the detriment of technological progress and industrial development, decided the court, echoing the opinion given last November by the court's Advocate General, Yves Bot.

The result is that the court finds that ideas and principles which underlie any element of a computer program are not protected by copyright under that directive, only the expression of those ideas and principles.

This in effect leaves the door open for other software companies to "reverse engineer" programs in many cases without fear of infringing copyright.